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The Works of the Right Honourable Sir Chas. Hanbury Williams

... From the Originals in the Possession of His Grandson The Right Hon. The Earl of Essex and Others: With Notes by Horace Walpole ... In Three Volumes, with Portraits

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AN ODE TO MR. POPE, ON TWO LATE PROMOTIONS.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 III. 


74

AN ODE TO MR. POPE, ON TWO LATE PROMOTIONS.

Written in January 1743-4.

Haud secus ac Veluti.

AS when a great tragedian's ill,
The manager, his part to fill,
Brings forth some wretched fellow
Who spoils the part, who damns the play,
And thus the cobler of to day,
To-morrow struts Othello:

75

Or as mad Charles, in war delighting,
At Bender desperately fighting,
By Janizarries wrapt in;
His friends destroy'd, his gen'rals slain,
Preferr'd the lowest of his train,
And made his cook a captain:
Or as, to make a dance at night,
When in the country, we submit,
Where company's but rare,
To call in servants to our aid,
The butler and my lady's-maid
Make up the wanted pair:
Or as, when Lady Wronghead forces
Her booby mate to drive six horses,
T' indulge her haughty heart;
Sir Francis never kept but four,
But as my lady would have more,
He fetch'd two from the Cart:
So now at court preferments go,
Where all that's vulgar, dull and low,

76

By pow'r is dragg'd up stairs;
How rapidly they rise to Fame,
For the first hour you hear their name,
They're ministers or peers.
Dulness herself has forc'd her way,
Her darling son, Sir John, 's in play,
And rules the Navy-board;
Whilst her dear Nephew, Samuel Sands,
Has kiss'd his sov'reign's lavish hands,
For coff'rer and lord.
O Pope, whom ev'ry Muse inspires,
No longer spend thy noble fires
On ev'ry nameless name;
No longer make her bards thy sport,
But boldly enter Dulness' court,
And crown her statesmen's fame.